How to make it

BEAT butter and cream cheese in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add powdered sugar, baking powder, and salt; beat till combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg and vanilla until

combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can. Stir in any remaining flour. Cover and chill about 1 hour or till easy to handle.

HEAT oven to 350 degrees F. Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Place balls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. With scissors, snip each ball in half from the top, cutting 3/4 of the way through. Snip each half twice, making six wedges. Gently fold down wedges to make a flower shape.

BAKE for 8 to 9 minutes or till edges are firm and bottoms are very lightly browned. Remove from oven. Transfer to wire racks and cool. After completely cool, pipe royal icing colored yellow to form blossoms in each cookie center.

TO STORE: Place in layers separated by waxed paper in an airtight container; cover. Store at room temperature up to one week or freeze up to 3 months.

Notes: These cookies are extremely moist. You may add 1/4 tsp. of mint, peppermint, or almond extract along with the vanilla. The above recipe was revised from the original recipe. I am avid baker and love to experiment with recipes and to refine and improve them. The original recipe dictates sprinkling colored sugar over the centers of each cookie after cutting in criss cross pattern, and rolling the balls in colored sugar before you cut them. I opted to add red food color to the cookies instead. The original recipe calls for pastel mint candy coated chocolate balls for the cookie blossoms.